Enterprise-wide occupancy based routing

ABSTRACT

A method and apparatus are provided for routing a contact with a client to one of a plurality of automatic contact distributors, each having a plurality of agents, by a network router. The method includes the step of determining by each automatic contact distributor of the plurality of automatic contact distributors a largest relative difference between a target occupancy and actual occupancy of each agent among the plurality of agents of the automatic contact distributor and for each contact type processed by the automatic contact distributor. The method further includes the steps of each of the plurality of automatic contact distributors transferring a value of the determined, largest relative difference for each contact type to the network router, the network router detecting a contact, the network router determining a contact type of the detected contact and the network router routing the detected contact to an automatic contact distributor of the plurality of automatic contact distributors that provided a largest relative difference for the determined contact type among the plurality of automatic contact distributors.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The field of the invention relates to communication systems and moreparticularly to call centers.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Automatic call distributors (ACDs) are known. Such systems are typicallyused by organizations to serve large numbers of callers through thePublic Switched Telephone Network (PSTN). Typically, inbound calls aredirected to a common telephone number of the organization anddistributed to agents based upon some criteria (e.g., agent idle time).

In addition to handling inbound calls, ACDs may also process outboundcalls. Typically, a controller monitors a workload of its agents. Wherea workload of received calls falls below some threshold value, thecontroller may begin to initiate outbound calls.

In addition to placing and distributing calls, an ACD may also identifyand display documents on agent terminals as an aid to processing thecalls. In the case of incoming calls, the calls may be received alongwith dialed number identification service (DNIS) and/or automatic numberidentification (ANI) information. ANI may be used to identify a callerat the same instant as the call is delivered to the ACD. The controllerof the ACD may use the ANI information to retrieve and display customerrecords on a terminal of the agent selected to handle the call at thesame instant that the call is delivered to the agent.

In addition, textual information may be displayed on a terminal of theagent that guides the agent through a sales presentation. DNISinformation may be used to identify an intended call target and toselect an appropriate sales presentation for use by the agent based uponthe intended call target.

While automatic call distributors work relatively well, their use isdependent upon the availability of an appropriate number of agents. If asupervisor estimates too low or too high on the number of agents needed,then not all of the calls can be answered or there are too few calls tooccupy all of the agents.

In addition, organizations often locate call centers in widely dispersedgeographic areas in order to reduce toll charges, avoid servicediscontinuities and exploit local labor availabilities. However, theflow of incoming calls is not always equal at each of the call centers.In some cases, one call center may be overloaded while in another,agents may be idle. Accordingly, a need exists for a method of balancingthe loading among call centers that is based upon the loading ofindividual agents and is not based upon the time of a call in a callqueue or a call abandonment rate.

SUMMARY

A method and apparatus are provided for routing a contact with a clientto one of a plurality of automatic contact distributors, each having aplurality of agents, by a network router. The method includes the stepof determining by each automatic contact distributor of the plurality ofautomatic contact distributors a largest relative difference between atarget occupancy and actual occupancy of each agent among the pluralityof agents of the automatic contact distributor and for each contact typeprocessed by the automatic contact distributor. The method furtherincludes the steps of each of the plurality of automatic contactdistributors transferring a value of the determined, largest relativedifference for each contact type to the network router, the networkrouter detecting a contact, the network router determining a contacttype of the detected contact and the network router routing the detectedcontact to an automatic contact distributor of the plurality ofautomatic contact distributors that provided a largest relativedifference for the determined contact type among the plurality ofautomatic contact distributors.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram for performing system-wide routing based uponoccupancy under an illustrated embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a skills router that may be used by thesystem of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of an enterprise server that may be used bythe system of FIG. 1; and

FIG. 4 is a lookup table that may be used by a network router of thesystem of FIG. 1.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF AN ILLUSTRATED EMBODIMENT

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a contact routing system 10 in accordancewith an illustrated embodiment of the invention. The contactdistribution system may be used for connecting contacts through thePublic Switch Telephone Network (PSTN) 12 or Internet 14 between clients16, 18, 20, 24 and agents 26, 28, 30, 32, 34, 36. In general, the system10 may be used by any of a number of different enterprise organizations(e.g., commercial, environmental, political, etc.) to advance the agendaof the enterprise.

In general, FIG. 1 shows three separate automatic contact distributionsystems 38, 40, 42 although the concepts described herein may be appliedto any number of contact distribution systems. The first automaticcontact distributor 38 may include a peripheral gateway 44, anenterprise server 50, a switch 56, a skills router 62 and a number ofagent stations 26, 28. The second automatic contact distributor 40 mayinclude a peripheral gateway 46, an enterprise server 52, a switch 58, askills router 64 and a number of agent stations 30, 32. Similarly, thethird automatic contact distributor 42 may include a peripheral gateway48, an enterprise server 54, a switch 60, a skills router 66 and anumber of agent stations 34, 36.

The automatic contact distributors 38, 40, 42 may be located ingeographically diverse locations. A load balancing system 68, includinga network router 72, an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) unit 70, a webserver 74 and an Instant Message (IM) server 76, may distribute contactsto the geographically diverse automatic contact distributors 38, 40, 42based upon agent loading. The network router 72 is not an Internetrouter, but instead is a router located at a network level of the PSTN.

In general, the balancing system 68 routes contacts to the threeautomatic contact distributors 38, 40, 42 based upon agent loadinginformation transferred to the network router 72 from the threeautomatic distributors 38, 40, 42. In this regard, a respectiveenterprise server 50, 52, 54 may collect and process informationregarding agent loading within the respective automatic contactdistributor 38, 40, 42 and transfer the determined loading through arespective peripheral gateway 44, 46, 48 to the network router 72.

The information collected and forwarded by the enterprise platform maydiffer based upon the operating mode of the automatic contactdistributor. For example, in an understaffed situation (contacts waitingfor agents), the enterprise platform 50, 52, 54 may calculate anestimated time until a qualified agent becomes available. In contrast,in a neutral or an overstaffed situation, the enterprise platform mayoperate to identify an agent who would benefit the most from a contactassignment of a particular contact type.

In order to ensure the equitable distribution of calls, the automaticcontact distributors 38, 40, 42 may rely upon a comparison of target andactual occupancies of the individual agents to determine loading at anagent level. As used herein, a target occupancy of an agent is apredetermined target percentage of work time during any one time periodthat a supervisor assigns an agent to spend on any one or more contacttypes. Similarly, actual occupancy is the actual percentage of totaltime during any one time period that the agent has actually spent on anycontact type. Any difference between target and actual occupancy (i.e.,an occupancy difference) refers to a comparison of occupancy values fora single contact type assigned to a single agent.

In order to equitably assign contacts, a supervisor may determine thenumber of full time equivalent (FTE) agents needed during a time periodfor each contact type and staff the automatic contact distributorsaccordingly. For example, if a contact type requires one FTE agent, thengiving two agents a target occupancy of 50% (or four agents a targetoccupancy of 25%) would suffice for the contact type.

Once a target occupancy is determined for a contact center 38, 40, 42and an adequate number of agents are provided, the skill routers 62, 64,66 may begin to assign contacts. In general, as each contact isreceived, the contact is classified by contact type. Classification maybe based upon the identity of the client, the intended destination ofthe contact or even based upon additional information provided by theclient during the contact with the balancing system 68 or contact center38, 40, 42.

To assign a contact to an agent 26, 28, 30, 32, 34, 36, the skillsrouter 62, 64, 66 may compare the target occupancy and actual occupancyof each agent and assign the contact to the agent with the greatestrelative occupancy deviation (difference) for that contact type.Assigning contacts to the agent with the greatest relative occupancydeviation has the effect of causing the relative occupancy deviationamong agents to converge over time.

In order to route calls from the balancing system 68 to the contactdistributors 38, 40, 42, the contact distributors 38, 40, 42 may eachtransfer a measure of their relative loading to the network router 72 ofthe balancing system 68. Under one illustrated embodiment, each contactdistributor 38, 40, 42 may identify and transfer a value of the greatestrelative deviation between target and actual occupancy among the agentsfor each contact type to the router 72. The router 72, in turn, may thenidentify the greatest relative value among the transferred values fromthe contact distributors 38, 40, 42 for that contact type and assign thecontact to the contact distributor 38, 40, 42 that provided theidentified greatest relative value.

Turning first to the skills routers 62, 64, 66, the skills routers 62,64, 66 may first receive a target occupancy from a supervisor. FIG. 2depicts a skills router 62, 64, 66 with agent files 100, 102 (agentfiles 100, 102 may be considered as exemplary of the files that would beprovided within the respective skill router 62, 64, 66 for agents 26,28, 30, 32, 34, 36). As shown in FIG. 2, each agent 100, 102 may receivea target occupancy 106, 108, 110, 112 for each of N contact types. Itshould be noted in this regard, that the total occupancy of the targetoccupancies 106, 108, 110, 112 do not need to add up to 100%, becausethe supervisor 104 may intentionally reserve some portion of the agent'stime for paperwork.

As each contact arrives, an occupancy processor 122 may determine a typeof the contact from contact associated and other information. From thecontact type, a comparator 126 may compare a target occupancy 106, 108,110, 112 with an actual occupancy 114, 116, 118, 120 of each agent withan occupancy in that contact type. In this regard, the actual occupancyof an agent may be subtracted from the target occupancy of the agent andthe difference value (i.e., the occupancy deviation or occupancydifference) may be normalized to a value from 0 to 100. The deviation ordifference value among agents 100, 102 having an occupancy in thatcontact type may be compared and the agent with the largest (positive)relative value may be chosen to receive that contact.

As each contact is assigned to an agent 100, 102, a timer 124 may beactivated to measure the time that the agent 100, 102 spends handlingthe call. The measured time of each agent 100, 102 for each contact typemay be separately accumulated during a time period and divided by thetime period to adjust the actual occupancy 114, 116, 118, 120 for thatcontact type and that agent 100, 102.

Turning now to the load balancing system 68, an explanation will beprovided of how the target occupancy and actual occupancies of thecontact distributors 38, 40, 42 may be used to balance the loads amongthe contact distributors 38, 40, 42. In this regard, the enterpriseservers 50, 52, 54 may periodically send a value of the highest relativeoccupancy deviation for each contact type to the load balancing system68.

The enterprise servers 50, 52, 54 may obtain the occupancy deviation foreach respective agent of their respective contact distributor 38, 40, 42by automatically requesting the occupancy deviation each time a contactarrives and the skill router 62, 64, 66 calculates these values forpurposes of contact assignment or, alternatively, the enterprise servers50, 52, 54 may simply request target and actual occupancy from the skillrouter 62, 64, 66 for each respective agents of their respective contactdistributor 38, 40, 42. In the case where the enterprise server 50, 52,54 requests target and actual occupancy, the enterprise sever 50, 52, 54may subtract the actual occupancy from the target occupancy andnormalize the difference to a value of from zero to one-hundred (forsimplicity the normalized difference may also be referred to as the“occupancy difference”).

Once an occupancy difference has been calculated for each agent for eachcontact type, an ordering processor 300 (FIG. 3) within the enterpriseserver 50, 52, 54 may order the occupancy differences for each contacttype based upon their relative values and select the occupancydifference (for each contact type) having the greatest relative valuefor transfer to the load balancing system 68.

In this regard, the ordering processor 300 may transfer the greatestrelative value for the occupancy difference and identifier of theassociated contact type to a communication processor 302. Within thecommunication processor 302, the information may be encoded into a datamessage to the network router 72 that includes at least three fields.The first field may include an identifier of the contact distributor 38,40, 42. The second and third fields may be the value of the occupancydifference and the contact type identifier, respectively. The enterpriseserver 50, 52, 54 may periodically repeat this process for each contacttype handled by the contact distributor 38, 40, 42.

The network router 72 may receive the transferred occupancy differencesfrom each contact distributor 38, 40, 42 and perform a comparison amongcontact distributors 38, 40, 42 to identify the contact distributor 38,40, 42 that provided the largest relative occupancy difference for eachcontact type. The network router 72 may place an identifier of thecontact distributor 38, 40, 42 into a lookup table (400, FIG. 4) of thenetwork server 72 indexed by the corresponding contact type.

For purposes of explanation, the reference “AC1” in FIG. 4 may refer tothe first contact distributor 38, “AC2” may refer to the second contactdistributor 40 and “AC3” may refer to the third contact distributor 42.Since AC1 is shown in the first column under contact type CT1, it may beassumed that AC1 provided the largest relative occupancy differenceamong the contact distributors AC1, AC2 and AC3 for contact type #1(CT1). The ten-digit number in the left margin of the table 400 mayrefer to a telephone number of the contact distributor 38 on whichcontacts of contact type #1 are to be delivered. The use of theten-digit telephone number (i.e., “123-456-7890”) provides a method bywhich the load balancing system 68 may provide an indication of acontact type to the contact distribution system 38.

Turning now to the load balancing system 68, an explanation will beprovided of how contacts are routed to the contact distributors 38, 40,42. In this regard, the organization using the system 10 may disseminate(by publishing or otherwise) one or more contact identifiers of theorganization (e.g., telephone numbers, website universal resourcelocators (URLs), e-mail addresses, etc.).

In one illustrated embodiment, one or more of the contact identifiersused by the organization may be a telephone number of an interactivevoice response (IVR) 70. Other contact identifiers may be to a websitewithin a web server 74. Still others may be instant message addresseswithin an IM server 76.

Each of the identifiers may provide the system 10 with an indicator of acontact type. However, as calls arrive at the IVR 70, call associatedinformation (e.g., ANI, DNIS, etc.) delivered along with the call mayprovide additional information. In addition, an audio presentation madeto the client 16, 18 by the IVR 70 through the switched circuitinterface may allow the client 16, 18 to make additional selections. Asthe additional choices are offered, the selection of the choices mayresult in a contact that may have originally been a contact type #1being reclassified into a contact type #2 or contact type #3 and so on.

For example, the organization may be a bank and the IVR 70 may offerverbal choices or mortgage services, savings account information, orgeneral. If the caller selects “general” or does not make a choice, thenthe contact type may be determined to be a contact type #1. On the otherhand, if the caller should select the “mortgages”, then the contact typemay be determined to be a contact type #3. Similarly, if the caller hadchosen “checking” or “savings”, then the contact type may be a contacttype #4 or #5, respectively.

Upon detecting selections made by a client 16, 18, the IVR 70 (ornetwork router 72) may identify a type of contact from the client 16, 18by reference to a predetermined criteria involving the call associatedinformation and/or the client selections or, alternatively, by referenceto a lookup table 71. The IVR 70 may then transfer notification of thecontact and contact type (or the call associated information and theselection information itself) to the network router 72.

Once the network router 72 receives notification of the contact, thenetwork router 72 may (by reference to an identifier of the contactdistributor under a column header of the call type in the lookup tableof FIG. 4) determine a destination of the contact. To transfer the call,the network router 72 may retrieve the destination indicator (e.g.,telephone number, URL, e-mail address, etc.) from the left margin andtransfer the contact as indicated by the table 400.

To continue the example above, a contact is received through the PSTN 12from a client 16, 18. The client 16, 18 was presented with audio optionsand made selections that allowed the contact to be classified as acontact type #1 (CT1). From the table 400, the network router 72 is ableto identify the first contact distributor 38 (AC1) as being the contactdestination. From the lookup table 400, the network router is also ableto retrieve a system identifier (i.e., an ACD telephone number of123-456-7890) where the contact is to be routed. In response, networkrouter 72 transfers instructions back to the IVR 70 to transfer thecontact to the determined ACD telephone number. The IVR 70, in turn,forwards a contact transfer instruction to a local switching office ofthe PSTN 12 that causes the contact to be transferred to the contactdistributor 38.

In another embodiment, contacts may be received through the Internet 14from clients 20, 24 and may be processed in a similar manner. In thisregard, the system 10 may include a web server 74 that provides awebsite through which e-mail message may be exchanged with agents of thesystem 10. The system 10 may also include an instant message (IM) server76 through which IM messages may be exchanged with the system 10. Aswith other contacts, e-mail and IM messages may be classified by contacttype based upon call associated information (e.g., URL source ordestination identifiers, e-mail source or destination identifiers, webpage from which query originates, etc.).

Upon receipt of an e-mail by the web server 74, the e-mail may beclassified by reference a predetermined criteria (as described above) orby reference to a lookup table 75. Similarly, an IM message may beclassified by reference to a predetermined criteria or by reference to acorresponding lookup table 77. In either case, the servers 74, 76 maysend a routing request to the network router 72. In response, thenetwork router 72 by reference to the table 400 may retrieve a systemaddress of a skills router 62, 64, 66 of the contact distributor 38, 40,42 that is handling e-mails or IM messages of that particular contacttype.

For example, the third contact distributor 40 may provide the greatestrelative occupancy difference among the contact distributors for contacttype #9 (CT9). An IM message may be received by the IM server 76 that isidentified as being a contact type #9 and the IM server 76 transfers acontact notification containing such information.

By reference to the lookup table 400, the network router 72 identifiesthe second contact distributor 40 (AC2) under the heading of CT9 (row13) with a system address of “URLN”. The network router 72, in turn,transfers instruction to the IM server 76 to transfer the IM message tothe skills router 64 for distribution to an agent 30, 32.

It should be noted that while the network router 72 receives anindication of contact distribution loading through the enterpriseplatforms 50, 52, 54, any contacts subsequently delivered to the contactdistributors 38, 40, 42 may ultimately be delivered to a differentagent. The reason for this is that the agent upon which the routingdecision was made may have received another contact before the re-routedcontact arrived.

A specific embodiment of method and apparatus for contact routing basedupon enterprise-wide occupancy have been described for the purpose ofillustrating the manner in which one possible alternative of theinvention is made and used. It should be understood that theimplementation of other variations and modifications of embodiments ofthe invention and its various aspects will be apparent to one skilled inthe art, and that the various alternative embodiments of the inventionare not limited by the specific embodiments described. Therefore, it iscontemplated to cover all possible alternative embodiments of theinvention and any and all modifications, variations, or equivalents thatfall within the true spirit and scope of the basic underlying principlesdisclosed and claimed herein.

1. A method of routing a contact with a client to one of a plurality ofautomatic contact distributors, each having a plurality of agents, by anetwork router, such method comprising the steps of: determining by eachrespective automatic contact distributor of the plurality of automaticcontact distributors a respective largest relative occupancy differenceamong the plurality of agents of the respective automatic contactdistributor for each contact type processed by the respective automaticcontact distributor; each respective automatic contact distributor ofthe plurality of automatic contact distributors transferring therespective determined, largest relative occupancy difference for eachcontact type to the network router; comparing the respective transferredlargest relative occupancy difference from each respective contactdistributor for each respective control type to each other to identify aselected contact distributor with a highest transferred relativeoccupancy difference for each contact type to identify for eachrespective contact type a respective selected automatic contactdistributor of the plurality of automatic contact distributors that hasa highest difference for the respective contact type; detecting acontact; determining a contact type of the detected contact; and thenetwork router routing the detected contact to an the selected automaticcontact distributor of the plurality of automatic contact distributorsthat provided a largest one of the respective largest relative occupancydifference for the determined contact type among the plurality ofautomatic contact distributors.
 2. The method of routing contacts as inclaim 1 wherein the step of determining the largest relative occupancydifference among the agents further comprising ordering the agents ofeach automatic contact distributor of the plurality of automatic contactdistributors based upon a relative value of a difference between targetoccupancy and actual occupancy of each agent.
 3. The method of routingcontacts as in claim 1 further comprising transferring an estimate oftime until an agent becomes available in an understaffed situation. 4.The method of routing contacts as in claim 1 wherein the step ofdetecting the contact further comprises an interactive voice responseunit receiving a switched circuit contact and detecting contactassociated information through a public switch telephone networkconnection.
 5. The method of routing contacts as in claim 4 furthercomprises the interactive voice response unit detecting client enteredrouting selection information entered through the switched circuitconnection.
 6. The method of routing contacts as in claim 5 furthercomprising the interactive voice response unit transferring the contactassociated information and any detected client entered information tothe network router.
 7. The method of routing contacts as in claim 6wherein the contact associated information further comprises a telephonenumber.
 8. The method of routing contacts as in claim 7 furthercomprising the network router determining a destination telephone numberfor routing the contact based upon the contact associated informationand any client entered information.
 9. The method of routing contacts asin claim 8 further comprising the network router instructing theinteractive voice response unit to re-route the contact to the automaticcontact distributor providing the largest relative difference among theplurality of automatic contact distributors for the contact.
 10. Themethod of routing contacts as in claim 1 further comprising defining thecontact as an e-mail.
 11. The method of routing contacts as in claim 10further comprising the network router determining a routing destinationfor the e-mail based upon call associated information of the e-mail. 12.The method of routing contacts as in claim 11 further comprising thenetwork router instructing a web server to re-route the e-mail to theautomatic contact distributor providing the largest relative differenceamong the plurality of automatic contact distributors for the e-mail.13. The method of routing contacts as in claim 1 further comprisingdefining the contact as an instant message.
 14. The method of routingcontacts as in claim 13 further comprising the network routerdetermining a routing destination based upon call associated informationof the instant message.
 15. An apparatus for routing a contact with aclient to one of a plurality of automatic contact distributors, eachhaving a plurality of agents, by a network router, such apparatuscomprising: means for determining by each respective automatic contactdistributor of the plurality of automatic contact distributors a largestrespective relative occupancy difference among the plurality of agentsof the automatic contact distributor for each contact type processed bythe respective automatic contact distributor; means within each of theplurality of automatic contact distributors for transferring thedetermined, largest relative occupancy difference for each contact typeto the network router; means for comparing the respective transferredlargest relative occupancy difference from each respective contactdistributor for each respective control type to each other to identify aselected contact distributor with a highest transferred relativeoccupancy difference for each contact type to identify for eachrespective contact type a respective selected automatic contactdistributor of the plurality of automatic contact distributors that hasa highest difference for the respective contact type; means fordetecting a contact; means for determining a contact type of thedetected contact; and means within the network router for routing thedetected contact to the selected automatic contact distributor of theplurality of automatic contact distributors that provided a largest oneof the respective largest relative differences for the determinedcontact type among the plurality of automatic contact distributors. 16.The apparatus for routing contacts as in claim 15 wherein the means fordetermining the largest relative occupancy difference among the agentsfurther comprising means for ordering the agents of each automaticcontact distributor of the plurality of automatic contact distributorsbased upon a relative value of a difference between target occupancy andactual occupancy of each agent.
 17. The apparatus for routing contactsas in claim 15 further comprising means for transferring an estimate oftime until an agent becomes available in an understaffed situation. 18.The apparatus for routing contacts as in claim 15 wherein the means fordetecting the contact further comprises means within an interactivevoice response unit for receiving a switched circuit contact anddetecting contact associated information through a public switchtelephone network connection.
 19. The apparatus for routing contacts asin claim 18 further comprises means within the interactive voiceresponse unit detecting client for entering routing selectioninformation entered through the switched circuit connection.
 20. Theapparatus for routing contacts as in claim 19 further comprising meanswithin the interactive voice response unit for transferring the contactassociated information and any detected client entered information tothe network router.
 21. The apparatus for routing contacts as in claim20 wherein the contact associated information further comprises atelephone number.
 22. The apparatus for routing contacts as in claim 21further comprising means within the network router for determining adestination telephone number for routing the contact based upon thecontact associated information and any client entered information. 23.The apparatus for routing contacts as in claim 22 further comprisingmeans within the network router for instructing the interactive voiceresponse unit to re-route the contact to the automatic contactdistributor providing the largest relative difference among theplurality of automatic contact distributors for the contact.
 24. Theapparatus for routing contacts as in claim 21 further comprising alookup table within the network router for determining a destinationtelephone number for routing the contact based upon the contactassociated information and any client entered information.
 25. Theapparatus for routing contacts as in claim 15 further comprisingdefining the contact as an e-mail.
 26. The apparatus for routingcontacts as in claim 25 further comprising means within the networkrouter for determining a routing destination for the e-mail based uponcall associated information of the e-mail.
 27. The apparatus for routingcontacts as in claim 26 further comprising means within the networkrouter for instructing an e-mail server to re-route the contact to theautomatic contact distributor providing the largest relative differenceamong the plurality of automatic contact distributors for the e-mail.28. The apparatus for routing contacts as in claim 15 further comprisingdefining the contact as an instant message.
 29. The apparatus forrouting contacts as in claim 28 further comprising means within thenetwork router for determining a routing destination based upon callassociated information of the instant message.
 30. An apparatus forrouting a contact with a client to one of a plurality of automaticcontact distributors, each having a plurality of agents, by a networkrouter, such apparatus comprising: an enterprise server of eachrespective automatic contact distributor of the plurality of automaticcontact distributors, each enterprise serves respective determining arespective largest relative occupancy difference among the plurality ofagents of the respective automatic contact distributor for each contacttype processed by the respective automatic contact distributor; acommunication processor of each enterprise server of the plurality ofautomatic contact distributors that is adapted to transfer thedetermined, largest relative difference for each contact type of eachrespective automotive contact distributor to the network router whereinthe network router compares the respective transferred largest relativeoccupancy difference from each respective contact distributor for eachrespective control type to each other to identify a selected contactdistributor with a highest transferred relative occupancy difference foreach contact type to identify for each respective contact type arespective selected automatic contact distributor of the plurality ofautomatic contact distributors that has a highest difference for therespective contact type; a load balancing system that detects a contactand that determines a contact type of the detected contact; and thenetwork router within the load balancing system that routes the detectedcontact to the selected automatic contact distributor of the pluralityof automatic contact distributors that provided a largest one of therespective largest relative occupancy difference for the determinedcontact type among the plurality of automatic contact distributors. 31.The apparatus for routing contacts as in claim 30 wherein the enterpriseserver further comprising an ordering processor that orders the agentsof each automatic contact distributor of the plurality of automaticcontact distributors based upon a relative value of a difference betweentarget occupancy and actual occupancy of each agent.
 32. The apparatusfor routing contacts as in claim 30 wherein the load balancing systemfurther comprises an interactive voice response unit for receiving aswitched circuit contact and detecting contact associated informationthrough a public switch telephone network connection.
 33. The apparatusfor routing contacts as in claim 32 wherein the contact associatedinformation further comprises a telephone number.
 34. The apparatus forrouting contacts as in claim 30 further comprising defining the contactas an e-mail.
 35. The apparatus for routing contacts as in claim 30further comprising defining the contact as an instant message.
 36. Amethod of routing contacts from a gateway with the public switchedtelephone network to an agent of one of a plurality of automatic contactdistributor, such method comprising the steps of: determining by eachrespective automatic contact distributor of the plurality of automaticcontact distributors a respective largest relative deviation between atarget occupancy and an actual occupancy for each agent of therespective automatic contact distributor and for each contact typeprocessed by the respective automatic contact distributor; transferringa value of the respective determined largest relative difference foreach respective contact type to a network router by each of theplurality of automatic contact distributors along with an identifier ofthe respective automatic contact distributor and the respective contacttype; comparing the respective transferred largest relative occupancydifference from each respective contact distributor for each respectivecontrol type to each other to identify a selected contact distributorwith a highest transferred relative occupancy difference for eachcontact type to identify for each respective contact type a respectiveselected automatic contact distributor of the plurality of automaticcontact distributors that has a highest difference for the respectivecontact type; the network router detecting a contact arriving at thegateway; the network router determining a contact type of the detectedcontact from contact associated information; and the network routerrouting the detected contact to the selected automatic contactdistributor of the plurality of automatic contact distributors with alargest of the transferred values for that contact type among theplurality of automatic contact distributors.